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Max Lloyd-Jones, who appeared in The Mandalorian as a body double for Luke Skywalker, has revealed he didn’t have a clue that the Jedi would return in The Book of Boba Fett with a different actor being merged with Mark Hamill.
When the season two finale of Pedro Pascal’s Star Wars series aired on Disney Plus in December 2020, fans were left in a state of utter disbelief when Jedi Master Luke appeared with his droid R2-D2, taking Grogu away from Din Djarin so that the Child could be trained in the ways of the Force.
If that wasn’t a huge enough of a surprise, another flabbergasting moment came when the iconic character appeared on screen once again in The Book of Boba Fett earlier this year, this time with actor Graham Hamilton stepping in as Luke’s body double with the help of sensational special effects.
While speaking exclusively to Metro.co.uk, Max recalled how special an experience it was to help ‘bring Luke to life’ by working with Mark in The Mandalorian… and how executive producers Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni ‘threw him off the scent’ of the Jedi’s comeback in the subsequent spin-off show.
Despite appearing in The Book of Boba Fett as a new character – an X-wing pilot for the New Republic called Lieutenant Reed – Max was convinced that the creators of the series had been unable to make another appearance from the younger version of Luke a reality.
‘Jon and Dave, they love to throw people off the scent I think. So they did tell me, “We thought about bringing Luke back, and it was just too complicated, and it was too much technology and it was too expensive.” I don’t know, they said some reason why they couldn’t bring him back,’ he recollected.
‘It was like, “We would have loved to have you do it, but sorry. But here’s this other role as Lieutenant Reed.” And so I was totally distracted.’
Having been given a new role and told a return for Luke couldn’t be facilitated, the War for the Planet of the Apes actor ‘didn’t think they were bringing him back at all’.
‘And then I watched the show, and went, “What!” So it was funny, but I think they did a really good job with it,’ he said, laughing.
Max showered Graham with praise for his performance, saying that he ‘carried it very well’ while emphasising that he never felt as though the role of Luke ‘belonged to me’.
‘I think it’s Mark Hamill’s role and the rest of us are just happy to help him animate it in a space that makes chronological sense for the series. So I think this new actor did a great job,’ he stated.
He also voiced a view shared by many fans, that the incredible technology used to depict this particular version of Luke set just after the original movie trilogy ‘looked even better this time’.
‘I thought it was a little crisper and they’ve clearly improved and worked out some tweaks I think,’ he said.
‘There was obviously a lot more movement, a lot more character and dialogue in this one than in my part, and it was just super cool to see those scenes of him building his Jedi Temple, the beginnings of it, what we’ve all kind of imagined and filling in all those little gaps between the movies, so I was just excited to see them bring it to life.’
Max agreed that by not finding out the huge secret, it meant that he could fully experience the big reveal like the rest of the fans, adding: ‘I got to be super blown away by it!’
When the actor appeared in The Book of Boba Fett as Lieutenant Reed, he shared a scene with Mando as well as fan-favourite X-wing pilot Captain Carson Teva, played by Kim’s Convenience star Paul Sun-Hyung Lee.
Max found it ‘pretty cool’ how quickly many Star Wars fans recognised him behind the helmet, after he was shown on set in the behind-the-scenes programme Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian.
‘I think the fans of Star Wars, you could put them to work on solving nuclear energy and they’d have it by next week. They’re just so passionate, attentive to detail, it boggles my mind, the tiny things they’ll notice,’ he said.
‘It was very cool that Jon and Dave brought me back to play my own part in the world there. I get my own character name and I get to play a part that’s uniquely my interpretation and that was super exciting.’
The actor, who’s set to appear in an upcoming Netflix superhero comedy series called The Imperfects and a Hallmark movie titled Love Classified, thought that perhaps because they had ‘a good experience doing The Mandalorian together’ and the fact that he didn’t ‘spill the beans’ on Luke’s entrance, the role might have been ‘a thank you’.
‘I’m not sure, but it was very cool and to have this scene opposite Paul, who’s kind of a great Canadian theatre, cinema and TV icon up here. It was just super cool to work with him and get that little scene together and have a bit of a comedic duo they put us into.’
What’s more, playing Lieutenant Reed also gave him a chance to work with Bryce Dallas Howard, who has been hailed for her directing skills on the Star Wars shows, an experience he described as ‘pretty epic’.
Looking back on The Mandalorian, Max found it ‘very validating and very encouraging’ to work with individuals like Pedro, saying that it ‘felt like I was in a dream’ when he realised who he was playing, not to mention being in a scene ‘with all those stars and to have the focus really be on me’.
‘I think I was working in a restaurant a month ago and now I’m doing this. It was quite a surreal moment that makes me keep coming back to do this job. You never know where you’re going to end up, who the people you’re going to end up around that you learn from, having a quick chat with Pedro about him doing King Lear in New York and then off to do Wonder Woman,’ he said.
‘Just being able to chat with people at that level and be around them is very validating and is very encouraging that anything can happen and just don’t quit before the miracle.’
The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett are available to watch on Disney Plus.
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